[relictele]

Whenever I’m fighting hardware issues I often boot from a Knoppix CD (http://www.knoppix.net/get.php).

I’m not a Linux zealot but a self-contained OS on CD/DVD obviously bypasses the entire Windows setup and will allow you to determine if there is any hardware failure - Knoppix has drivers for almost every flavor of hardware including sound cards and if it boots with sound operable then at least you can eliminate hardware failure as a possibility.

Assuming hardware is intact then reloading drivers is simple but often effective.

[mmichaels1970]

Whenever I’m fighting hardware issues I often boot from a Knoppix CD

Seems like an interesting idea for fighting viruses as well. In Windows, even booting to a safe-mode command prompt frequently requires too much overhead to remove a virus. On occasion, I've had to install a second XP OS to just clean the viruses with the first. Then delete the second OS, adding about 90 minutes to the removal process. With your Knoppix suggestion, I can boot to a self-contained OS and get a "clean" scan of everything on the hard drive....interesting.

I've never tried it, but based on your post, I think I'm going to get myself a copy.